Tag: 49 Weeks

This is one of a thirty part exposé on the Children of the Legion. This group of women, then girls, in the Regnum Christi, share their stories of abuse, neglect and the aftermath of being children in the Regnum Christi. For a complete list of stories to date, view Children of the Legion.

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I woke up the next morning a different person.  I had left home as bubbly, happy, irrepressible, irresponsible 14-year-old.  I came back a much older, sadder, more serious, and shyer 16-year-old.  I was coming back to a different family, too — I now had a younger brother.  Everything seemed weird and different — like it wasn’t at all the family I had left, but a new family I was going to have to adjust to.

I kept up all my prayer commitments and did more than required.  I also continued wearing only skirts and never pants.  Continue reading “Sheila’s Story, Part VIII”

This is one of a thirty part exposé on the Children of the Legion. This group of women, then girls, in the Regnum Christi, share their stories of abuse, neglect and the aftermath of being children in the Regnum Christi. For a complete list of stories to date, view Children of the Legion.

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Remember Juanita, the consecrated woman who was always pestering me at sports? Well, she was also my housework supervisor. It was her job to come into the conference room, which I cleaned every day, and nag me to work faster. Since I took considerable pride in my work and knew I did a good job, it drove me crazy. One day, I just lost it. I was tired of humbly apologizing for not doing a better job when I WAS doing a good job, as I saw it. Continue reading “Sheila’s Story, Part VII”

This is one of a thirty part exposé on the Children of the Legion. This group of women, then girls, in the Regnum Christi, share their stories of abuse, neglect and the aftermath of being children in the Regnum Christi. For a complete list of stories to date, view Children of the Legion.

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I left you all on a cliffhanger at the end of Part V for quite a long time … sorry about that.

Changes were pretty frequent during those years. The school was still relatively new — I think less than ten years old — and we were still working out what the rules would be. So we would be called into the conference room and told, “Spiritual direction is now spiritual guidance,” or “Section I and Section II are now called ECYD Section and Regnum Christi Section,” or “Your ‘face-to-face’ is now your ‘PC Prospect.'” Continue reading “Sheila’s Story, Part VI”

This is one of a thirty part exposé on the Children of the Legion. This group of women, then girls, in the Regnum Christi, share their stories of abuse, neglect and the aftermath of being children in the Regnum Christi. For a complete list of stories to date, view Children of the Legion.

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I ended Part IV in my spiritual director Sally’s office. (Her name is not really Sally.)

I tried to tell her about my giant conversion experience and how I was really committed to Regnum Christi now and that I was sure I had a vocation. She wasn’t really interested. She told me that it was way too soon to worry about whether or not I had a vocation.

Continue reading “Sheila’s Story, Part V”

This is one of a thirty part exposé on the Children of the Legion. This group of women, then girls, in the Regnum Christi, share their stories of abuse, neglect and the aftermath of being children in the Regnum Christi. For a complete list of stories to date, view Children of the Legion.

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Like I said at the end of Part III, the cognitive dissonance was beginning to get to me. I had a lot of little sneaky things I did, as I said before — from mentally composing fanfiction during “spiritual reading,” to coming up with objections in my head to everything I learned during apostolic methodology. But I started to feel tired of fighting.

It didn’t help that we were constantly hearing about “giving 100%,” “holding nothing back from God,” “being who we were meant to be,” and so forth. Continue reading “Sheila’s Story, Part IV”